An aqueous base developable novel deep-UV resist for KrF excimer laser lithography.

Abstract

A positive deep-UV resist consisting of silylated polyhydroxystyrene and photoacid generator was investigated. Optimization of the polymer structure has been achieved from the points of silylating substituent and silylation ratio. The resist is capable of imaging 0.3μm line and space pairs in a 1.05μm thick film by using a KrF excimer laser stepper (NA=0.42) with practical sensitivity of 20mJ/cm2. It has been also shown that the resist is workable as a top layer in a bi-layer process.